Returning villagers brave hidden dangers

IN the small village of Baghluja just outside Dohuk, returning families, mostly Christian, have braved their lands again after not only being thrown from homes by Saddam Hussein’s regime in the 1990s but after having recently discovered their fields were riddled with unexploded bombs.

Mayor Sada Gorges stands outside his modest home talking to his grandson in the afternoon sunlight, his boots freshly caked in mud after coming from his fruit field.

Baghluja was closed down until last year while MAG, with Irish Aid funds, cleared fields of lethal devices.